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This is why, in normal times, food waste is a good thing. It means there's some slack in the system for when times get worse. Not that that helps people in poo

This is why, in normal times, food waste is a good thing. It means there's some slack in the system for when times get worse. Not that that helps people in poorer countries, unfortunately.

usrn 4y ago
Soon we might face the choice of stopping aid or starving ourselves which doesn't help them either.
joenathanone 4y ago
Such a short sighted comment, no, it would be best to have an efficient system where excess food could either be stored or delivered to those with food insecurities.
- tomp 4y ago
  No, your comment is short-sighted. Ideally, you'd have a system that would massively over-produce food (and feed everybody and store some) so that localised disruptions / crop failures wouldn't bring the whole system down.
  - guerrilla 4y ago
    I'm pretty sure that's what they meant.
- ziml77 4y ago
  Perfect efficiency is how you end up with small disruptions turning into big problems. Compensating for lost production in one place by ramping it up elsewhere is not as quick as flipping a switch. Especially when your food needs a season to grow.
- atq2119 4y ago
  Excess food is being stored, but it can't be stored indefinitely. Others have explained again why excess food is a good thing. One thing in favor of your point is that we can still improve the system: avoid excess production of processed food, and find optimal uses for excess food that isn't eaten (compost, biofuels, etc.).
- joshuahaglund 4y ago
  We might agree -- because it's not excess if people still aren't having their needs met. But producing exactly enough is a recipe for not enough when something unexpected happens. There should be waste (or unused capacity, that can hopefully be somehow reclaimed as compost/bio-char/chemical feedstock/fuel/etc) in such an essential system.
bontaq 4y ago
This seems to imply that food waste will be lessened. Instead, prices will simply be raised, until we hit some unsustainable point and there is no extra food to waste. Lessening food waste now would require planning for the future and changes to existing systems.
- gruez 4y ago
  >This seems to imply that food waste will be lessened. Instead, prices will simply be raised, Why not both? There's isn't some magical point where everybody goes "oh shit" and then scrambles to reduce food waste. Instead, there's always people on the margins that only need a little push (from the rising prices) to enact food waste saving measures.

This is why, in normal times, food waste is a good thing. It means there's some slack in the system for when times get worse. Not that that helps people in poorer countries, unfortunately.

usrn 4y ago

Soon we might face the choice of stopping aid or starving ourselves which doesn't help them either.

joenathanone 4y ago

Such a short sighted comment, no, it would be best to have an efficient system where excess food could either be stored or delivered to those with food insecurities.

tomp 4y ago
No, your comment is short-sighted. Ideally, you'd have a system that would massively over-produce food (and feed everybody and store some) so that localised disruptions / crop failures wouldn't bring the whole system down.
- guerrilla 4y ago
  I'm pretty sure that's what they meant.
ziml77 4y ago
Perfect efficiency is how you end up with small disruptions turning into big problems. Compensating for lost production in one place by ramping it up elsewhere is not as quick as flipping a switch. Especially when your food needs a season to grow.
atq2119 4y ago
Excess food is being stored, but it can't be stored indefinitely. Others have explained again why excess food is a good thing. One thing in favor of your point is that we can still improve the system: avoid excess production of processed food, and find optimal uses for excess food that isn't eaten (compost, biofuels, etc.).
joshuahaglund 4y ago
We might agree -- because it's not excess if people still aren't having their needs met. But producing exactly enough is a recipe for not enough when something unexpected happens. There should be waste (or unused capacity, that can hopefully be somehow reclaimed as compost/bio-char/chemical feedstock/fuel/etc) in such an essential system.

bontaq 4y ago

This seems to imply that food waste will be lessened. Instead, prices will simply be raised, until we hit some unsustainable point and there is no extra food to waste. Lessening food waste now would require planning for the future and changes to existing systems.

gruez 4y ago
>This seems to imply that food waste will be lessened. Instead, prices will simply be raised, Why not both? There's isn't some magical point where everybody goes "oh shit" and then scrambles to reduce food waste. Instead, there's always people on the margins that only need a little push (from the rising prices) to enact food waste saving measures.